Self-imposed hot seat fits A.J. — and Norv, too

The hunter’s hot seat is bright orange, so you can’t miss it, jammed into the shelves behind A.J. Smith’s desk. It’s there as a daily reminder to the Chargers general manager and his visitors — that he’s on it.

I agree with Smith’s self-imposed warmth. He should be on the hot seat. With the exception of boss Dean Spanos — whose cushion is as comfortable as he prefers — and a few others, so should head coach Norv Turner, his staff, his players and many others within the organization. If all goes right, this should be as good a team as any in the NFL, smack in the middle of the Super Bowl hunt.

Anything else would be completely unacceptable. Enough is enough. Smith knows it more than anyone. But he doesn’t consider himself a failure (nor do I, for what it’s worth).

“No, I’m still working on it,” says Smith, who has done good work this week trying to make his team better. “I’m extremely upset. As a general manager I’m responsible for coming up with a plan for Dean Spanos, and I haven’t figured out how to make the Chargers world champions. I don’t like it.

“If we don’t go to the playoffs this year there’s going to be a story told. We’ve won five (AFC West) divisions, five shots at the trophy, and that means five failures. My job status, what can I tell you? Dean is the one I worry about, and I’ll either be back in 2012 or he’ll go in another direction.”

I’m tired of hearing the players pay too much attention to great expectations instead of small details. If you’re good, play and coach like you’re good.

Another traditional Norv slow start also would be absurd. They open here against Minnesota, go to New England, then are home to Kansas City and Miami before going to Denver. I see 4-1, minimum, before the bye week. No excuses.

The Chargers won nine games in 2010 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2005. They were broadsided by injuries, especially to the wide receiver corps, which became wildly transient. But this still was The League’s No. 1 offense, primarily due to superb quarterback Philip Rivers.

The worst special teams play since Pudge Heffelfinger lined up for Yale was what did them in. Just disgraceful. Coach Rich Bisaccia has been hired to make sure it doesn’t happen again (which would be close to impossible), but it was Smith and Turner who brought in the special teamers who either couldn’t play or didn’t want to.

No one else to blame. They did a lousy job evaluating.

“Special teams, in my opinion, cost us three games,” Smith says. “We set some kind of Guinness Book world record, going through 74 players. Five long snappers?”

Nothing haunts Smith more than injuries, because they’re out of his control, but he won’t use them as an excuse, and he has examples to share.

“Indianapolis got hit hard and got in (the playoffs),” he says. “Green Bay was hit hard, devastated, and not only got in, but won a Super Bowl. They only won 10 regular season games, and if someone hadn’t missed a field goal, they wouldn’t have made it.”

Smith came out of the lockout running. Through free agency, he brought in linebackers Takeo Spikes and Travis LaBoy, and safety Bob Sanders (“We’re not finished,” he says), while re-signing seven of his own — including receiver Vincent Jackson, who was franchise-tagged, and Eric Weddle, now the richest safety in football.

There was an outcry over what Smith paid Weddle, who was, you know, a second-team Associated Press All-Pro last year. Smith can’t win for trying. If he doesn’t spend money he gets ripped; when he spends it he gets ripped.

“Think what would have happened if Eric went to Houston (which offered him more money),” Smith says. “They’d say we let another good player go. Now they say he doesn’t deserve it. You’re not going to please everybody. I like this football team’s makeup and we’d like to continue the continuity. I believe it’s an advantage to keep your core players.

“I had no idea how easy this job was until I became GM. Everybody in the world can do this job. Everyone has an idea how to run a football team. Anybody can do it. They know who to pay and not to pay.”

You can’t help but look at this team coming out of the lockout, with so much in place, and think the Chargers have an advantage. Smith thinks so, too, but that only adds to the pressure on his guys to come out of the blocks with a purpose.

“At the beginning of the season, the teams that have player and coaching continuity, in my mind, have to be at an advantage,” he says. “We’re going to find out the first four games, and that excites me, sprinkling in players such as Spikes and Sanders.

“I want us to rebound quickly and win enough games to get into the postseason. I believe we’re a playoff-caliber team, and we’ve had playoff-caliber teams and kept missing it. We don’t have enough time.”

The hot seat is his clock. It reminds him what time it is.

If these Chargers can’t cull excellence from promise, the “story told” may be heads rolling down Murphy Canyon Road.